Lego Classic Space Monorail

This is my classic Legoland Space collection from 1978 through 1987. All original, first generation except for the monorail itself. It's taken me five years to collect and put together this monorail layout.

It has all be said before. Yknow, if I had a dollar for every comment lamenting how awesome the monorail would sell now, I could probably afford an old monorail set.

Would it sell? Sure. Would it sell enough to justify LEGO having to design
all new molds and a motor for a new monorail design? NO, not even close IMO (and I'm guessing LEGO's as well or we would see a Monorail set sitting next to train sets now).

The price for Monorail sets back then was around 200 dollars compared to LEGO trains which I think were maybe 149.99 USD at most. A new monorail would likely cost 400 USD, and LEGO is not going into such an endeavor to sell what would likely be a 'handful' compared to what a typical set sells in a year.

It has all be said before. Yknow, if I had a dollar for every comment lamenting how awesome the monorail would sell now, I could probably afford an old monorail set.

Would it sell? Sure. Would it sell enough to justify LEGO having to design
all new molds and a motor for a new monorail design? NO, not even close IMO (and I'm guessing LEGO's as well or we would see a Monorail set sitting next to train sets now).

The price for Monorail sets back then was around 200 dollars compared to LEGO trains which I think were maybe 149.99 USD at most. A new monorail would likely cost 400 USD, and LEGO is not going into such an endeavor to sell what would likely be a 'handful' compared to what a typical set sells in a year.

^You should really think before you type. I mean your rebuttal is just a guess. You could go collect data and do a little research to come up with a logical statement to back your opinion and counter his. This isn't the ESPN comments, dude. The people here have brains!

It has all be said before. Yknow, if I had a dollar for every comment lamenting how awesome the monorail would sell now, I could probably afford an old monorail set.

Would it sell? Sure. Would it sell enough to justify LEGO having to design
all new molds and a motor for a new monorail design? NO, not even close IMO (and I'm guessing LEGO's as well or we would see a Monorail set sitting next to train sets now).

The price for Monorail sets back then was around 200 dollars compared to LEGO trains which I think were maybe 149.99 USD at most. A new monorail would likely cost 400 USD, and LEGO is not going into such an endeavor to sell what would likely be a 'handful' compared to what a typical set sells in a year.

You are Mad.

Put Disney and Epcot on the box. Cha ching.

I totally agree. I think it would do well. Disney fans are even more obsessive than LEGO fans.

^You should really think before you type. I mean your rebuttal is just a guess. You could go collect data and do a little research to come up with a logical statement to back your opinion and counter his. This isn't the ESPN comments, dude. The people here have brains!

So... I have to come up with data and research to explain my opinion of why LEGO likely would not make it (which I think I did by the way), but your attitude of 'just make it cause it will sell' doesn't require any data or research to base why LEGO should/would invest a ton of money into a set a handful of people (relative to the overall LEGO consumer for other themes) wants?

I think I made a pretty well thought out response to your 'intelligent' comment of (paraphrasing here) 'meh, it will not sell... wanna bet?'

Your ignorant comments aside, I used logic to back up my opinion. The fact that LEGO has not produced a Monorail since 1991 I think is also pretty conclusive in my 'guess'. As for the rest of my logic for why it is unlikely that it would sell in huge numbers (therefore LEGO not making it), that is in my original response if you cared to read it all.

Finally I said 'guess' and 'opinion' because that is all it is. Unless one works for LEGO and knows what they are thinking.

There's this lovely Why no more monorail? thread from 2012 where a TLG designer explains why the monorail is not coming back. Basically

Very expensive molds that need to be replaced (in that thread USD 2,000,000 was deemed not enough for the required molds)

The classic monorail sets, even at their high price point, were sold at a loss

In focus groups/testing kids don't express any interest in monorail and actually find it boring

As with other themes/sets AFOL's would love to see make a comeback, forums like this one act like an echo chamber. However TLG needs a bit more than a couple of (ten?) thousand AFOL's to make this worthwhile.

And I'm saying this as somebody who had/still has most of the 80's Lego sets, except monorail. Would love to have one though. My parents were very generous with buying Lego for us, but somehow we never got any of the monorail sets. Pretty sure we did ask for it...

^well, #6990 is the Futuron monorail (while #6991 is the very cool-looking Unitron monorail set, not pictured here...)

To the OP: This is a great display. I had something similar set up on my bedroom floor years ago, don't know if I have the space to do it again right now...and your MOC is much better than anything I've created.

Your setup reminds me of a show display from several years ago that I stumbled across at one time or another. Here's the link; might be fun to try to coordinate this for Chicago's Brickworld someday...

^You should really think before you type. I mean your rebuttal is just a guess. You could go collect data and do a little research to come up with a logical statement to back your opinion and counter his. This isn't the ESPN comments, dude. The people here have brains!

So... I have to come up with data and research to explain my opinion of why LEGO likely would not make it (which I think I did by the way), but your attitude of 'just make it cause it will sell' doesn't require any data or research to base why LEGO should/would invest a ton of money into a set a handful of people (relative to the overall LEGO consumer for other themes) wants?

I think I made a pretty well thought out response to your 'intelligent' comment of (paraphrasing here) 'meh, it will not sell... wanna bet?'

Your ignorant comments aside, I used logic to back up my opinion. The fact that LEGO has not produced a Monorail since 1991 I think is also pretty conclusive in my 'guess'. As for the rest of my logic for why it is unlikely that it would sell in huge numbers (therefore LEGO not making it), that is in my original response if you cared to read it all.

Finally I said 'guess' and 'opinion' because that is all it is. Unless one works for LEGO and knows what they are thinking.

If there's any chance anyone here is attending Brickfair Virginia this year, I have setup a monorail collab. I'm taking the custom blue train and all of my track. It's enough for its own display. But I'm inviting people to bring their track for a larger layout, which is currently planned to have it's own area, possibly an island. Would love to have more neo classic space, if possible. I'm going to try building a few things myself, including a monorail base.

Moon base is also making a comeback, by the way. Looking forward to it.

Question though for you @drdesignz , what do you use for the table(s)? Looking to create a large pirate layout and looking for the perfect canvas to start.

Thanks. I used two doors. I wanted something that would fit Lego baseplates well and be perfectly flat. Doors will provide that. 32-stud baseplates are almost exactly 10" square. In the US, standard doors are 80" in height and come in various widths (in 2" increments that I've seen). So I bought the 30" wide ones. At 30 by 80 inches, that gives me exactly enough space for 24 (3x8) baseplates (they overhang the edges by such a small amount it's hardly noticable). Put a couple together and now you have 48 (6x8 like me, or long if you want, 3x16). Then it's just a matter of setting them on something. I bought trestles from Ikea specifically made for this purpose. They're nice enough, but don't fold, so they're not the easiest to transport. I'm looking for a different method of support for future public displays. I think I paid about $30 for a door and $35 for a pair of tressels, so $65 per table, or $130 total for this setup. I have a third in my hobby room as well. If there's another way to create a table of this quality, for this size and purpose, with such little effort, for less money, I'm not aware of it. But I'd certainly be interested.